Monday, October 12, 2009

Leader Bikes, read this before you buy.

I ordered and paid for a mountain bike frame from Leader Bikes through their ebay storefront on August 25th based on their promises to "ship within 24 hours" and that the frame that was "in stock". Even with the slowest shipping method I should have received the frame within the week.

After 1 week of no contact from Leader (i.e. a shipping confirmation) and no frame, I contacted them to inquire about my order. 24 hours later and numerous emails back and forth I finally got the truth from them. They claimed to have emailed me to tell me that the frame was actually NOT IN STOCK and that they would let me know when it arrived. I checked trash and junk and they did not email me as they indicated. With 2 lies and no indication of when the frame that I wanted would get to me I canceled the order and asked for a refund. Again after numerous emails back and forth they finally agreed and refunded my PayPal account.

I thought that was the end of it. However, after more than a month I get a notice from ebay indicating that they want to cancel this transaction. Since I've had the H1N1 flu I haven't been too concerned with my emails from ebay and didn't read this. A week later I get a notice from ebay indicating that Leader has opened a complaint against me as follows:

"According to our records, you haven't responded to leaderbikestore's notification regarding payment for item NEW 09 Leader 516H ATB Mountain Bike Frame... . This unpaid item case was opened on ..."

"To avoid receiving an unpaid item strike, please resolve this situation within seven days of the date the notification was sent to you. An unpaid item strike will result in loss of feedback privileges for this transaction."

Furthermore, in reading the complaint filed with ebay by Leader Bikes against me they have indicated that they want to cancel the transaction because I placed the order in error. A 3rd lie. I wanted the frame based on their advertised terms and conditions and only ended the transaction when the truth came out.

LeaderBikeStore has (or had) a 100% positive rating with ebay. This is not accurate. I suspect they should have many strikes against them but know how to game the ebay system to prevent any of these negative ratings from showing up.

My recommendation: Don't do business with these guys. They say anything to get you into a transaction with them and once in a transaction don't want to let you out. Then they use strong arm tactics to force you to allow them to erase any negative feedback you might provide.

After the Leaderbikestore experience I bought a Sette frame from PricePoint for considerably less money have have been very impressed with both the frame and the transaction.